Basil I. Hirschowitz, M.D.

Basil I. Hirschowitz, M.D. was born in South Africa in 1925.
He earned a degree at Witwatersrand University in physiology in 1943 and graduated from their medical
school in 1947. After two years of residency in Johannesburg, he continued his education in London
at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School under Sir John McMichael followed by a three-year research
fellowship in gastroenterology under Sir Francis Avery Jones. While in London, he completed
research for an advanced degree of M.D. (the equivalent of the Ph.D. in the US). In 1953, he began a
fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of Michigan where he stayed on as
Assistant Professor. While in Ann Arbor, he began working with two colleagues in physics to
develop a flexible endoscope. To achieve this, they invented
first a glass coated glass optical fiber, the essential element of the flexible
endoscope. The successful prototype developed in 1957 is now in The
Smithsonian. This is considered to be one of the top inventions in medicine in the twentieth
century.

In 1959, he was invited to develop the Gastroenterology Division at The
University of Alabama in Birmingham and remained on as director for almost 30 years and continuing on
Faculty until 2009. The division actively pursued
clinical practice and clinical and basic research largely studying gastric secretions and peptic ulcer.
During his career, he received many awards including the Kettering Medal from the General Motors Cancer
Foundation, the Friedenwald Medal of the AGA, the Schindler Medal and the Crystal Award for lifetime
contributions to Endoscopy by the ASGE. In addition, he has received an honorary doctorate at
Gothenburg University and was appointed honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and has been
elected to the Association of American Physicians, and been promoted by the American College of
Physicians to master status.

Castle Connolly "National Physician of The Year Awards" All Rights Reserved.